The 2017 release of the world’s most powerful sheetmetal CAD/CAM software, Radan, paves the way for the most exciting developments in the software’s history.

Product Manager Olaf Körner says: “We are on the verge of reorganizing how manufacturers will be using Radan in future, and important updates to Radmanager in the new edition are the first steps towards this.”

Developers are working on separating Radan into two distinct aspects; first, traditionally creating NC code to drive CNC machines, and second, what they call “engineering of parts.”

Radmanager’s strength is that it creates nests without the user necessarily needing to know where the parts come from, what the order numbers are, or which customer they are for.

“But to achieve this, it relies on the parts being completely ready for nesting,” says Olaf Körner. “And that means more than just having flat parts with the right geometry. We need to know as much as possible about the parts – whether they can be cut on any machine tool, and the cycle times for all of those solutions. For example, it may be feasible to cut a part on either a laser or water jet, but while it would take only minutes on the laser, it may take two hours on the water jet.

“In Radan 2017, Radmanager’s ability to manage both 2D and 3D engineering of parts is the precursor to the entirely new forthcoming engineering system for any type of parts, including 5-axis laser-cut sheet metal, tubes, flat, and bent.”

The forthcoming Radquote, which is now available as a preview will be demonstrated at exhibitions and pilot customer sites ahead of its official launch. Radquote will also rely on engineered parts.

“This 3D engineering of parts is becoming increasingly important. It will enable manufacturers to break assemblies down from CAD systems, into their constituent components, and fully understand everything about them.”

2D CAD files can also be imported automatically into Radmanager now, without the need to convert them.

CAD/CAM Updates:
Radan 2017 addresses danger of scrap flying off, sliding under the sheet, or damaging the tools on punching machines, by flagging up where floating scrap will occur.

The Automatic Order Style Editor now shows graphically what the program is going to do, enabling users to home in on a particular operation to make changes. This is seen as a major improvement on the previous text-based system.

Still with punch presses, Radan 2017 configures machine tools with all available cutting tools, so that new customers have commonly used tools immediately available.

3D:

A side panel was introduced in a previous version of Radan which aids navigation around complex assemblies, but there was still a need to travel between the two. A new facility in Radan 2017 allows the user to stay with the model, and to immediately switch between front view, side view, top view etc.

The graphics drawing has been speeded up. As an example, Olaf Körner explains that in earlier releases, deleting all screws in an assembly may take a while after they were selected, but now he says the software will always deliver a quick and consistent frame rate. The 3D function also supports modern graphics cards more efficiently, improving performance on tablets.

The process of updating information between Radbend and Radan 3D has now been automated. “A design is analysed in Radbend, and then the bend information it provides fed back into the 3D model. This used to be a process that the user performed in a number of steps. Now, once the part has been identified, it’s a simple mouse click to update the information.”

Nesting:

Improved algorithms have led to an important enhancement of Radan’s powerful nesting capabilities. “Continuous effort is applied to further strengthen the nesting engine to achieve a better fit, and therefore, a potentially better material yield.”

With an increasing number of users adopting project nesting, a new reporting engine ensures users can easily customize the content and design of their reports.

It is also easier now to create nest projects, thanks to the new template function. Olaf Körner says: “Existing project settings can be stored with a given name, and recalled at any time. “Even creating nest projects for the same machine tool sometimes required repetitive work, but now everything the user needs will be there, saving quite a number of steps.”

Profiling:

Autotooling routines are now more efficient in placing tags, or microjoints, for common cutting.

And the foil cutting function has been extended to scrap, ensuring that where sheets are covered with a protective foil for laser cutting, clean cuts can be made for scrap, too.

Radbend:

Radbend now highlights where holes are at risk of deforming by being close to bends.

Also, the operator can switch between Design and Result Values. “This is particularly valuable where Radbend shows the end result of a radius, for example, may be different from how it’s designed. Selecting which values gives the user more control over the finished bend, depending on whether it’s vital that they stay with the design values, or if the end result values are acceptable.”

For the first time, the user can now check with different maximum allowed force for the pre-bend and the hemming operation done with same tools.

Improved communication between 3D and 2D parts ensures that Radbend can now link to the 2D flatblanks created by Radan 3D. It also means that with more information going to the flatblank, 2D bends can easily be seen – the tooling and sequence number, as well as the radius, angle and setback.

Also, Radbend now supports the new user interface, Touchpoint TruBend, which combines the advantages of multi-touch technology with industrial control…as all Trumpf pressbrakes will move to this state-of-the-art controller.

Radtube:

While Radtube has traditionally been used for simply cutting tubes, it can also program any extruded shape for tube cutters, including I-beams, H-beams and C-beams, along with L-shaped profiles. “Because cutting a round or square tube is completely different from working with more complex beams and profiles, we’ve assisted the user with this by vastly improving automation and support.”

Summing up Radan 2017, Olaf Körner says the items of new and enhanced functionality provide immediate improvements for sheet metal manufacturers, while underlining the intention to continue investing heavily in the software.

“Developing Radan to engineer and fully analyse parts in this way is the biggest step forward we’ve ever taken. The future is very exciting, as the level of automation we’ll be able to achieve is phenomenal.”

A start-up subcontractor was struggling so hard to program its punch press to produce the complex parts it needed, that it considered switching all manufacture to its laser – until investing in the world’s most powerful sheetmetal CAD/CAM software, Radan.

The software that came with its 51 station triple track turret Amada AC 2510 NT got Bolton Sheetmetal Ltd going with the basics, but Managing Director Martin Farrow says they needed Radan’s advanced sheetmetal technology to take them to the next level.

Martin says in the pre-Radan days they never punched anything with a radius – all those components went on to the Amada 3015 4kw Mark 11 laser. “The punch is a superb machine, and we knew it was capable of doing absolutely everything we wanted…but with our original software even something fairly
simple, like a square plate with a radius on each corner, was beyond it.”

It reached the stage where 90 percent of parts were cut on the laser, just to avoid what he says was the hassle and lengthy time to program the punch. “We were spending hours on it. I was having to step in and try to program it myself, and it could take me a day to complete the program. When I was on
holiday, if a job hadn’t already been programmed, the punch just wouldn’t be used. Now when I’m away I have every confidence that the team will be able to get the punch to do whatever they need it to, and that’s fantastic for us.

“Amada are the machine specialists, and we’re really pleased with both the laser and the punch…and Radan are the software specialists. We now take Radan for granted because it’s so simple to use and quick to produce the programs we need.”

The Radan Combi system which drives both their laser and punch, was only installed in May this year, but proved its worth immediately, and within three months Bolton Sheetmetal were punching more components than they were lasering. “We can now mirror a part to get two components together, we’ve improved material utilisation with common line cutting, and capitalise on part removal with a shute. A lot of companies just don’t understand the benefits that more powerful software gives them.”

Swift tooling of the part, and the powerful nester, mean they no longer restrict sheets to just one type of part. “I’d never mix parts on a sheet with the old software, mainly because we had to tool the entire sheet, but with Radan we just tool the part,” says Martin.

It also increased their flexibility, giving them the option of easily switching work between laser and punch, depending on which type of cutting a job is best suited to.

Although Bolton Sheetmetal is only two years old, the family running it have over 40 years experience in the industry. Martin used to work for the sheetmetal company his father set up in 1974 – now Martin’s father works for him. They operate with ten employees, many of them family members and close friends, from 5,500 square foot premises near the Reebok Football Stadium. A major laser contract is to manufacture doors and door frames for the prison service, and they punch chassis channels for DAF trucks. Other products they manufacture, mainly from galvanised, stainless and mild steels, along with Zintec, include shop fittings and office furniture.

They found that Radan Combi was ideal for their independent punch and profile requirements, while also providing a seamless transfer of parts between the two technologies.

Martin also says Radan’s Quick Estimate function is proving invaluable for them, run in conjunction with their MRP system. “We get a dxf file from the customer, tool it up and click Quick Estimate, which gives us the time the job is likely to take and the optimum sheet size to use. We import that information into our MRP system which produces an accurate quote for us to send to our customer, based on Radan’s information.” He says their next investment is likely to be Radan’s high performance and versatile 3D modelling package, Radan 3D.

And Radan’s bottom line benefits in the short time they have been using it? “It’s not only saved us a person’s wage by freeing them up to do other things, and wiped out all the hassle we had, it’s given us much more scope. We can now take on jobs we couldn’t even have considered before. Radan is advanced sheetmetal technology and I wouldn’t have invested in it if I didn’t know it would enable us to take on more complex work and keep us ahead of the game in this very competitive industry.”

One of the world’s most powerful sheet metal CAD/CAM systems is celebrating its 40^th anniversary this year.

Radan, now part of the Vero Software Group, began life as a verification program created at Bath University.

Kevin O’Connor, Radan’s Sales and Major Accounts Manager, says the University was approached by a machine tool manufacturer who wanted offline programming software for a sheet metal punch press.

“In those days pre-verification programmers would type the G-code and X and Y co-ordinates, longhand, and it came out as paper tape which would be fed into the machine tool controller. The cutting tool would then move according to the instructions on the paper tape.”

Two senior lecturers at the university, Tony Billett – who was to become Radan’s Managing Director – and Martin Swainston, devised the software to read the paper tape and simulate the movement that the machine would make, offline. “It’s very primitive compared to Radan today, but was far in advance of anything else available in 1976. For the first time, it was possible to try a program out on a computer instead of waiting until it was on the machine and cutting metal.”

Radan has developed into the world leader by staying solely in the sheet metal industry, and creating solutions for specialist niches within that sector. These include Radtube, which drives dedicated tube cutting machines tools as well as the rotary axis on flat bed lasers;   and Radm-ax for driving 5-axis lasers. “Both these modules provide an affordable solution to the CNC part programming needs of engineering businesses of all sizes.”

But Kevin O’Connor says today’s customers are looking for much more than just CAD/CAM functionality. “They want something to run the whole of their production process, which may include punch, laser, press brake, costing, and production control.”

That led to the advent of Radan’s logistics suite, which began with Radimport, and the new Radmanager. Also, Radquote will be released later this year. “Customers asked us for a quoting module to manage their production, and be able to fully integrate with existing MRP systems.”

Now with a UK customer base approaching 2,000, he believes Radan’s future lies in two areas: guaranteeing that customers continue to get new state-of-the-art functionality in each of the annual updates, and further development of the logistics products.

“We talk to the machine tool companies to ensure that all our new functionality fits in with their technology, and we hold regular user group meetings where customers tell us what they’d like to see in future releases.”

Now in his 29^th year with Radan, Kevin O’Connor explains why he has stayed loyal to the brand for so long. “A number of employees also have 20 and 25 years service. Not only do we passionately believe in how Radan helps sheet metal companies take their businesses to the next level, but we already work for the best company doing what it does in the sheet metal industry. What more could we want?”

Headquartered in England, Vero Software designs, develops, and supplies CAD/CAM/CAE software radically enhancing the efficiency of design and manufacturing processes, providing its customers with exceptional value through high productivity gains and significantly reducing time to market. The company’s world-renowned brands include Alphacam, Cabinet Vision, Edgecam, Machining STRATEGIST, PEPS, Radan, SMIRT, SURFCAM, WorkNC and VISI, along with the production control MRP system Javelin. Despite the diversity of application, these solutions have one thing in common: they all address the rising challenges of achieving manufacturing efficiencies and bring huge value to the operations in which they are deployed.

Vero has direct offices in the UK, Germany, Italy, France, Japan, USA, Brazil, Netherlands, China, South Korea, Spain and India supplying products to more than 45 countries through its wholly owned subsidiaries and reseller network. Vero is part of Hexagon (Nordic exchange: HEXA B), a leading global provider of information technologies that drive quality and productivity across geospatial and industrial enterprise applications.